Agnes Denes Quotes

The tree is made by nature, mathematics by people. And combining the two is creating this beautiful alliance between humanity and nature. That's why my forests are mathematical expansion systems, all of them.

Pattern-finding is the purpose of the mind and the construct of the universe. There are an infinite number of patterns, some of which are known; those still unknown hold the key to unresolved enigmas and paradoxes.

People always understand everything in retrospect.

Anything important has to be almost invisible. And underrated. So the understructure should be underrated, but strong enough to hold the earth.

Public art existed all along, but ecological art just naturally grew out of my thinking and writings in that area for years. I didn't get involved in it; I started what then became a movement.

People are always fighting reality until it's pushed down their throats.

Most wonderful things are unconscious.

I study what I work with. I studied all these different fields of science that I needed for my work. I studied how to mine a landfill and what to plant in it. It's fascinating because you learn a new field each time.

People have too many problems during the day; they don't want to think.

When I'm gone, you'll be sitting in a cafe and say, "Do you remember Agnes?"

If I could relive my life, what I would do is work with scientists. But not one scientist, because they're locked into their little specializations. I'd go from scientist to scientist to scientist, like a bee goes from flower to flower.

People don't hurt what they love.

I went through about six or seven painting methods just to see what I didn't want to do. And then I got off the wall, and went into the environment.

Society likes to file you away, put you in this or that category. And I never fit any category. Maybe that's why I was left out of a lot of things, or why my work was not really understood, because there was no precedent for it.

Thinking has an understructure and underpinnings.

One thing that's paramount in my life is that I am alone. I'm a loner. And yet I have many friends and I don't feel lonely. And I even like my own company. But when I'm alone, it's to read or write. I'm in my thoughts. Mostly I'm learning.

I wish I didn't have daily problems to deal with, so that I could just concentrate on learning more, every single day.

I'm mostly self-taught. I didn't learn much in school.

I always was alone. And I'm alone today. It's fine. I have lots of friends, but not in terms of working together.

I hate to put tags on things, because tags change, and they change with the requirements made on them.

We use up words as we use up images. We use up everything, and that's good, because it makes us grow.

There's no precedent for women philosophers and there's no precedence for most of the things I did.

Philosophy gets its ugly head into everything, but I don't think we live philosophy anymore. It's done.

I never considered myself a performance artist.

Every one of my works, when I'm looking back, becomes some kind of solution, or something to concentrate on. Something to pay attention to and maybe change direction.

My work is about helping humanity.

I had drawings that were the first time that mathematics was put into visual form.

Words are changing. I find that old expressions are outdated, so when I write something, I try to find a new expression that hasn't been born yet. It's difficult.

What I did for my last act as a painter, if you call me a painter, was to photograph the weave of the canvas, and enlarge it and enlarge it until it became like a landscape.

If I like a person, I like them. I may like the art and not like the person.